After a quick reply to a tweet about the Canon R5 from Downtown Camera asking when I could get one, I got a message from the person we have been getting most of our gear from for the last 15 years letting me know that if I wanted an R5 I could pick one up the next day…so, off I head to the big city to pick up a new camera and a new lens to play with.
While I was in the camera store I checked out the new 100-500 lens and was pretty tempted but adding another $4000 CAD to the already large purchase was not really necessary since I have a perfectly good 100-400 II and 500 F/4 at home that should work well with the adapter. I did pick up the 35mm F/1.8 lens to ensure I had something to play with while waiting for the adapter to become available, and because it might be a reasonably good video lens for this system.
Commlite R to EF adapter
It seems either everyone is trying to get the EF-R adapters all at the same time or Canon is limiting the supply to try to urge more people to buy the new R lenses. Either way, it was going to be months before I was likely to get one. In the end I went to Amazon and a Commlite adapter arrived at the front door the next day. As you can tell I was very eager to get out with the longer lenses to see how this camera performs.
Bonaparte Gull. Canon R5 and 500mm F/4 IS II at F/4, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200
The bald eagles and osprey had already moved on from the Niagara River and so far there doesn’t seem to be much around to shoot. There were, however, hundreds of Bonaparte gulls fishing along with the cormorants on the Niagara river near Lake Erie, so that became my first test case.
Bonaparte gull looking for fish. Canon R5 and 500mm F/4 IS II at F/4, 1/2000 sec, ISO 320 in Black and White.
I set the camera up with the animal eye focus, with the rest of the autofocus settings left at the default settings. The scene was relatively simple, a bird a few feet above the water and little background to be a distraction. This is the best case, high contrast between the subject and the background. Shooting with the 500mm F/4 IS II handheld and the birds between 25 and 50 feet away, I was able to lock onto a bird amazingly quickly compared to using my Canon 5DS. Most of the time it locked onto the bird immediately and was on the eye if it was visible. Compared to the Sony A7RIV and the 200-600 F/5.6-6.3 I could really see no difference in getting the subject and tracking. While the A7RIV does not have useful eye focus for birds at this time, it is still able to get the bird itself just as quickly. The results of my first couple of outings with the R5 were impressive.
Greater Yellowlegs in the morning light. Canon R5 with 500mm F/4 IS II at F/4, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200
Using the camera in H+ speed I really didn’t notice much blackout in between shots and was able to track the fast moving Bonapartes consistently. Again this felt the same as using the Sony A7RIV, and while I’m used to this, others might find they see more blackout than me. One thing I did notice, and have since going to mirrorless cameras is that because the focus points go to near the edge of the scene, I can quickly focus on a clear image in the viewfinder with both the R5 and the A7RIV, and with the object tracking I can place the subject easily in the composition as I’m tracking. With the 5DS I tend to have to use the central 9 point focus to track well and even if I move those points before I start, I usually end up having to crop later to get the composition I wanted. This is no longer the case with the R5 so I’m more often able to get pretty close to the crop I want in camera as long as I have the length in the first place.
Shooting Canon R5 with commlite adapter and Canon 500mm f/4 IS II, a pretty fantastic combo.
Focus speed and accuracy with the 500mm and the Commlite adapter is excellent and for the most part the only shots I got out of focus were user error. Buffer is certainly sufficient for the way I shoot which is usually bursts of 3-4 shots at a time, although there may be many of these bursts when the action is happening. I never hit the buffer limit during this trial shoot on the R5. Likewise I have rarely hit the limit on the A7RIV but I nearly always hit the buffer limit on the 5DS and the 5DIII. This is a huge improvement for any non-1D series Canon as the last camera I had with a good buffer was the 1DIV.
The sun shines on a field of flowers. Canon R5 with 35 F/1.8 at F/1.8, 1/6400 sec, ISO 100
I will be doing a good deal more comparisons as soon as I get a chance to be outdoors with something interesting - that might be snowy owls if they start heading back south again soon.
The other main use case for this camera is nature landscapes. The fall colours are a great excuse to get out with the camera. I bought the 35 f/1.8 RF lens with the camera since I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get an adapter and this was one of the few relatively inexpensive lenses currently available for the R mount. Although I find the autofocus on this lens to be a bit underwhelming, the visual quality seems to be pretty good.
Very dry waterfall on a colorful autumn day. Canon R5 and 16-35 F/4 at F/6.3, 1/30 sec, ISO 400.
The Canon 16-35 F/4 is a lens that pretty much lives on Salwa’s camera (currently the 5DS) but I did manage to use it with the adapter for a while this past weekend. I really love this lens, and adapted on the R5 it is really great. I do think this will be a go-to lens as we start to do video with the R5.
I have also used the 100 F/2.8 IS macro and the 100-400 II for a short amount of time. Both lenses have worked well, in fact they both feel like they work better on the R5 than on the 5DS. I have seen 2 errors when using the adapter over the past couple of weeks that both required me to remove the battery to get things running again. It hasn’t yet happened when using a native lens but since it happens so infrequently I can’t be 100% sure it is due to the adapter.
Praying Mantis taking advantage of the bugs on our porch screen. Canon R5 with 100 F/2.8 IS at F/5.6, 1/80 sec at ISO 3200 handheld.
The Canon R5 is a fantastic camera for a nature photographer. It has fast and accurate autofocus tracking, amazing picture quality, ISO is great at least up to 6400. There are so many useful features and I’m told it can do some pretty amazing video tricks as well.
other observations on the r5
Battery life is not great. When compared to the DSLR it is pretty horrible but even compared to the Sony A7RIV it seems to have at best 2/3 the life. To be fair, I nearly always use cameras with servo focus and I don’t turn off the camera during a hike but under similar conditions the R5 does not do well. I really haven’t tested out anything to do with video so my observations here are purely from a photography point of view. From what I have experienced so far I will need to have 2-3 batteries for a day of shooting. With the Canon 5DS I would rarely need a second battery unless I was tracking focus all day with the 500mm. To put it into perspective, I can also usually get through a day of shooting with the Sony A7RIV with a single battery but always carry a second one especially when using long lenses. I don’t really find this to be a huge deal, bringing a couple of extra batteries does not add that much weight but it can make a difference when I’m away from power for more than a few days of shooting. The new battery that comes with the camera is definitely longer lasting (as it should be), which means that I will likely be picking up a few more of those instead of relying on the extras we have already.
Ergonomics are pretty good. If you are used to Canon 5 series DSLRs then this will feel pretty similar but just a bit smaller in your hands. I personally do not prefer having a huge camera with the 5D being almost too big. The R5 and the A7RIV both feel great in my hands. I find the new mode dial to be a bit odd but I’m getting used to it since it needs to house all the new video modes. Button layout is very similar to the 5D which is a good thing in some ways but disappointing in others. I’m used to the layout, that is good. I was hoping for more custom buttons as I have become used to having on the Sony cameras. I like to be able to use buttons for most things I change regularly and although Sony’s menus can be deep and convoluted, once I have the items I use most often on a button, I rarely go into the menu when shooting. There are a couple of buttons you can reprogram on the 5R but I would have liked a few more. For many people this last complaint may be mitigated by the use of the touch screen but I rarely like to take my eye from the view finder to change things if I don’t have to. I would really love to see the back wheel be replaced with a wheel and four buttons like on the A7 series. It took a while to get used to not hitting one of the buttons while spinning the wheel, but now it is just fantastic to have the extra four buttons all within normal reach of my thumb.
On other Canon cameras I have exposure compensation set on the back wheel for modes other than Manual and you have the ISO button on top. With the R5 I have the same setup but since there is no ISO button, I have it set for the extra wheel on the lens. For adapted lenses though I can only change it with the touch screen unless I use up one of the other buttons but that will still mean pressing that button and then moving one of the dials. On the Sony it is set for the right side of the wheel, so press the wheel and then turn all in one motion. On the other hand, the location of the exposure compensation dial is hard to change while shooting on the Sony so nothing is perfect.
The touch screen is great for when I’m on a tripod. It is very responsive, easy to use and has great functionality. I like the swivel screen, it will be amazing for astro photography. I don’t use the touch screen much handheld and the settings allow it not to get in the way without having to turn it off unlike the Sony where I just turn it off unless I’m doing video.
Thank you Canon for bringing back the joystick after the trial with the original EOS R. I use it constantly with gloves on in the winter.
Top screen: I guess this is a nice to have, but everything on that screen I can see in the EVF or the back screen. So it is neat but really I could easily live without it. I know some people love it and it doesn’t get in the way so I’ll just mostly ignore it.
Eye cup: Now this is my first real complaint. This eye cup is just not as good as the ones on the 5D series. As a person who shoots with glasses I get a lot of glare when looking through the eye piece if the sun is anywhere to my right. This is the first camera I have ever used that I have seen this problem. I’m sure there will be some sort of accessory that I can use to fix this issue since it may just be for people like me who try to shoot with glasses on.
Autofocus modes - it would be nice if you could have object tracking (and eye tracking) associated with each of the focus modes. I will often use single point or small group to acquire initial focus when the subject is slightly obscured but want the camera to track that specific bird. You can have it acquire from the center point initially but not from any given focus group. This works really well on the Sony cameras currently even if their eye autofocus is not as good with animals.
Tracking autofocus is easily as good as the Sony A7RIV in almost all use cases. It is better than the Sony when it comes to eye tracking of animals and birds. This seems almost instantaneous and has often gotten focus before I see the bird clearly in the frame. The only times so far that I have had issues is where the bird is flying near a complex background like along a line of trees. The R5 often is unable to get initial focus in these cases, however if it does get focus before going into these areas it usually keeps focus on the bird. This was a problem as well with earlier Sony cameras like the A6000 but has gotten much better since the A7III. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the algorithms improve with each software update. It may also be something that can be improved with the autofocus adjustments in the menus but in the default settings it currently is not quite as good under those conditions.
One thing I have to get used to again is how Canon’s evaluative exposure metering works. If you are used to Canon cameras then this will not be an issue but Sony cameras tend to meter in a way that I find closer to what I see. The good thing is that both systems are internally consistent and all I have to do is remember that when I’m using the Canon cameras I have to increase compensation often by a stop in situations where there are a lot of grey clouds in even part of the image. This used to be a bigger problem with older Canon cameras that would lose detail in the shadows, not so much of an issue now as if I make a mistake, recovering a stop or two is no problem.
Image quality - This is fantastic. At low ISO I don’t see much difference between the R5 and the 5DS. I do see a bit more detail in the Sony A7RIV. This is great for large prints but it is mostly useful in nature photography for the ability to crop into a subject that is still too far away even with a large lens. This is also where the image stabilization comes into play, with IBIS allowing handheld shots that are easily cropable as long as you have your shutter speed fast enough to handle the motion of the subject. At high ISOs the R5 seems just a touch better than the Sony A7RIV and both are significantly better than the 5DS which I really wouldn’t shoot higher than 1600. I will test the usable high ISO range as I get out with the owls again but so far I think 6400 will be usable even on slightly cropped images.
It may seem that I have found a lot to complain about on the R5 but really every camera has a few things that you would like to change or improve. None of those are really things that would make me not want to use this camera, just as a similar list does not make me dislike the A7RIV. So far I really enjoy using the R5, especially since I can use it with EF lenses that have been sitting on the shelf since Salwa’s 5DIII kicked the bucket and she has taken over my 5DS.
I am planning on doing some comparison videos of using the R5, the 5DS and the Sony A7RIV for birds and animals during our next big trip coming up. I will also take some time to shoot video on the R5 and A7RIV hopefully testing out tracking of animals in video for both. I will likely do another blog or two as I try out other lenses and get more time in the field with this new toy.